Jubilee Gardens, The Gynn, Blackpool

Late on Sunday afternoon the storm clouds broke for a moment and the sun actually came out. I pushed my way through the throngs of people staring and pointing at it, wondering what it was...

I went down to the Gynn on the seafront to think about some photos I need to take for a project. The Jubilee Gardens just to the north of the Gynn have been there for a long time, but have only been called the Jubilee Gardens since the Queen's Jubilee a few years ago. It previously was known as the Sunken Gardens.

There's a new toilet block and sub station that does just that - blocks the view of the garden's entrance.

I fancied a shot with the iron name plate in it but with my back to the building I was still far too close. I could only get this shot by putting the camera on a tripod, setting the self-timer and then hoisting the tripod up in the air so the camera was around 15 feet off the ground. I knew it would take more than one shot before I got it right but was quite gratified to be able to report that this is shot No.2!

Large version of the photo: from Flickr

Blackpool Postcards

Some more Blackpool postcards from my collection. I bought these three as a set, though I suspect there are more to find somewhere!

The first one shows Talbot Square, at the North Pier where a couple of charabancs - the coaches, commonly known as "sharras" until well into the 1960s - turn right into Talbot Road.

A number of double decked Balloon trams congregate around the tram stops at the North Pier whilst a single deck Railcoach tram approaches from the north.

The second postcard shows the gardens at South Shore, between the South Pier and the Pleasure Beach. A spectacular fountain is entertaining folks but that - and the open air baths seen in the background - has long since ceased to exist.

The final postcard shows the Promenade Gardens at the Gynn. The Savoy Hotel is in the background to the right. The gardens still exist and are home to a colony of rabbits that are often to be seen nibbling the grass of a summer's evening.

There used to be a branch off the tram track here to allow trams to travel along Dickson Road on the round town route.

The skies on all the photographs look to have had clouds painted on. And these sepia tinted postcards were not the only use made of these photos, as I came across the first photograph published as a coloured postcard - coloured with paint, I should add - which has been published to Flickr by 'Lady Wulfrun'. It can be viewed here.

Changing Blackpool

Whilst in Hoyles Market in Olympia last weekend I found this postcard. It's a watercolour painting of the Gynn area, although it looks very different to today's Gynn Square. At the time there was a deep inlet into the land and the trams had to negotiate a sharp bend. I'd put the date of the postcard somewhere around 1910. The large Dreadnought trams had problems with the curve and it was decided to fill the inlet and build over it, giving the coast the shape that we know today and giving the trams a much straighter track.

Gynn Square Trams

This postcard shows trams turning from the Promenade into Dickson Road at Gynn Square Blackpool. The route, to Blackpool North Station closed on 27 October 1963 and there is no trace of rails left anywhere along the route today.

At the same time the tram sheds at Bispham were closed along with the route to it down Red Bank Road. For another twenty years or so the rails to the sheds were visible in the car park of Alpic, a cash and carry that opened in the old sheds. Today the sheds have gone and the car park now serves a building on Red Bank Road itself - the Sainsburys store.

This being a John Hinde postcard (taken by John Hinde himself) it has several examples of the painted red coats, I mentioned in an earlier post! At time of writing the Gynn gardens are still there and have a colony of rabbits which can be seen quite often munching the grass and flowers!